Jane Fonda Says Her Four-Time Co-Star Robert Redford “Did Not Like to Kiss” And “Has an Issue With Women”

Every so often you get an actor or actress whose interviews with the press are the gifts that keep on giving. Brian Cox is great at speaking his mind. Jamie Lee Curtis, too. And now we’re blessed to be alive during the Jane Fonda press tour of 2023 where she’s up for anything, whether it’s discussing orgasms with Andy Cohen, gifting Drew Barrymore a new vibrator, or revealing what it’s really like to work with Robert Redford.

During an interview at Cannes this week, Fonda spoke candidly about several of her most famous films and co-stars, and while discussing Redford, whom she co-starred with in Barefoot in the Park, The Electric Horseman, The Chase and Our Souls At Night, she explained that it wasn’t always fun being on set with him.

“He’s always in a bad mood, and I always thought it was my fault,” Fonda stated. The pair first worked together in the 1966 film The Chase, but it wasn’t until 2017 when they made Our Souls that Fonda realized she wasn’t the problem.

“The last movie I made with him was six years ago. What was I, about 80 years old or something like that. And I finally knew I had grown up. When he would come on the set three hours late in a bad mood, I knew it wasn’t my fault,” she said, but added, “We always had a good time.”

Fonda added that despite their romantic pairing in their films, “He did not like to kiss,” but she said, “I never said anything [to him about it].”

“He’s a very good person,” Fonda said, though she noted, “He just has an issue with women,” but did not elaborate on that comment.

Redford wasn’t the only co-star that Fonda spoke candidly about. Of her China Syndrome co-star Michael Douglas, she stated “[He] probably doesn’t like me.”

Discussing Lee Marvin, who appeared with her in Cat Ballou, she said, “Lee Marvin was fabulous. He was very funny. He was always drunk. We stayed at the same motel, and they had to carry him up the stairs.”

And as for French director Jean-Luc Godard, she said, “He was a great filmmaker. I take my hat off. A great filmmaker. But as a man? I’m sorry. No, no.”

If you’re wondering who Fonda does love to work with, the answer should be obvious: Lily Tomlin, whom she named as her favorite co-star. Throughout the pair’s decades-long friendship, they have worked together on 9 to 5, 80 For Brady, and Grace & Frankie.